Hansen, R. D., & Donoghue, J. M. (1977). The power of consensus: Information derived from one's own and others' behavior. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 35(5), 294-302.
http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/0022-3514.35.5.294
Three experiments, using a total of 168 undergraduates, tested perceivers' willingness to infer population performance from their own behavior and the behavior of others as well as the impact of these consensus inferences on causal attributions. In Exp I, observers' population inferences and causal attributions reflected sample-based information only when random sampling techniques were assured. Actors based their causal attributions and population estimates on their own behavior and ignored sample-based information, regardless of described sampling procedures. In Exp II, self-attributor and other-attributor Ss inferred population performance from their own behavior. Although other-attributions were influenced by another's similar or dissimilar performance, self-attributions were not. In Exp III, the attributional impact of sample-based consensus was diminished when observers had knowledge of their own behavior. Hypotheses to account for the greater efficacy of self-based consensus compared to sample-based consensus are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2016 APA, all rights reserved)